Press House building

MONKEVIČIUS Romualdas

Before midnight on January 11,1991 I went to the Press House after hearing the air-raid siren. This is what I saw. The paratroopers had already broken into the building, and a crowd of people had gathered by the door. At that time, three more paratroopers, one of them a colonel, tried to make their way into the building. Quite a few people were crowded right by the door, and one defender stood over the entrance with a fire hose. As the soldiers were forcing their way into the building, a stream of water hit the colonel. He grabbed a Kalashnikov sub-machine gun from a nearby soldier and began shooting at the defender standing above the entrance. The guy was wounded and there were bullet holes left on the front of the building. The wet colonel climbed into tank no.211. In the evening I saw the same colonel on a telecast of the program „Stop".

After some time three more tanks (T-72) arrived. They fired their guns at the building. Their numbers were 571, 574 and 511.